


Breakable

by Nerdgirl001



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Gen, Scully is stressed, Scully standing up for herself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 03:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10235318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdgirl001/pseuds/Nerdgirl001
Summary: Scully always feels like she has something that she needs to prove. Mulder never sees how hard she tries until she breaks.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sound of adventure](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10235849) by [RiverSongFallenAngel221B](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiverSongFallenAngel221B/pseuds/RiverSongFallenAngel221B). 



She was okay with being broken. She didn't want to be breakable.

Scully sat at her side of the desk degectedly. She watched as the dust swirled up around her in the slits of light from the outside world. She took a deep breath and began mindlessly filling out yet another expense report. 

Broken she could handle. Everyone's broken in their own way, she figured. No one is the perfect human being no matter how they portray themselves to the outside world. Everyone had off days. 

The phone rang and she picked it up, "X-Files office, Scully speaking." 

"I need to see you in my office." Kersh's voice came through cold and uncaring. 

She bit her lip and held back the urge to yell at him, "Yes sir. I'll be right up." 

She gathered herself and grabbed a few folders from the desk. She walked to the elevator and hit the button for the third floor.

Breakable was something that was unacceptable. Being breakable meant being fired. It meant losing the respect of all of her fellow agents, and no matter how low their respect for her was now, she knew she still had something to lose. 

She approached Kersh's office, her head held high. She wasn't going to do anything stupid. 

"Sir?" She asked as she entered the room.

"Sit down agent Scully." He said without looking up from the papers infront of him.

She took a seat across from him and waited.

He finally looked up at her, "I'm guessing you already know why you're here?" 

"Because we've gone against your orders again, sir?" She said impassively.

Kersh looked her directly in the eye, "not only have you been disregarding my orders blatantly and consistently, you've managed to complete a net of zero work in the past month." 

Scully wanted to strangle him. Instead, in a calm and measured voice she replied, "I'm sorry sir but I have to disagree with you. The work we have done in our past two cases have saved lives."

"Lives that arguably were never in danger agent." Kersh replied harshly.

"That's your opinion and no one else's. Sir." She couldn't keep her voice even anymore. She was fed up with Kersh's attitude the past few days. "If you'll allow me to show you any of this evidence I have my reports on both of the cases with me." 

Kersh took the files that she held out to him, "I'll look over these later." 

"Of course, sir." Her voice was boardering on patronizing.

"You can go for now, Agent Scully. But you tell Mulder that if he continues dragging you around on these little side missions of his that it won't be only his ass on the line." 

That was it. She couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't going to be overlooked or discounted or pushed around any more. "With all due respect sir, agent Mulder doesn't drag me around. And if my ass is on the line it ought to be known that I work with agent Mulder, I do not work for him. If you and every other man on this God forsaken planet are going to continue to treat me as an overrated secretary then I'll be forced to-" she paused and took a deep breath, "I'll be forced to prove you wrong." 

Kersh was taken aback, "This outbreak, agent Scully, could put your job at stake. I could put you on probation for this little stunt." 

Scully threw her hands up in the air, "then why don't you?" Kersh didn't reply, she stood up with her hands placed on his desk. "it's because you need me. You need me on these cases so that agent Mulder doesn't go off the deep end. You know that if you get rid of me that no one will be able to keep him in check and that even if you fired both of us here and now that we would continue to work to solve these paranormal cases and save lives and it would cost the FBI greatly. Because everyone knows that you don't like the X-Files and nothing would give you more pleasure than to destroy them all together, but we also know that those cases will continue to pour in and if you get rid of us, you get rid of your one chance to close the cases." She stood fully up and stared down at Kersh.

"Get out." He said between clenched teeth. 

"With pleasure." She spat back at him and left the office. She walked swiftly to the stairwell and began decending to the X-Files office. 

Being broken meant allowing herself to go over the edge. To do something that she may later regret. To be active when she ought to be passive.

She sat back down in her chair, waiting for the call upstairs telling her that she was fired. She didn't resume to expense report, she kept herself from breaking under the pressure weighing down on her. When the door to the office opened she didn't look up.

"Coffee?" Mulder's voice asked from the doorway.

She didn't move.

Mulder walked into the office and set a cup down infront of her, "Oh, the expense report. Is it finished yet?" He was trying to make small talk, she knew he was. But this fact didn't stop her, it didn't stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks, it didn't stop the feeling of failure that crept over her. 

Mulder jumped up from the chair that he had just sat in when her sobs became loud enough for him to realize what was going on, "Scully?" He stood beside her, unsure as to what he could do to help.

She shrugged away from his touch when he tried to place a hand on her arm. When she slammed her fist into the table he stopped her from doing it again, "what's going on?" He asked, trying to get her to speak to him.

She looked up at him and he could see the self hatred in her eyes, "I broke." She whispered, attempting to blink away the tears that blurred her vision. 

Mulder grabbed a tissue from the box on the desk and dabbed at her cheeks, "what happened?" 

She laughed, tears still welling in her eyes, "I yelled at Kersh." 

"You did what?" Mulder sounded mostly impressed with a twinge of worry in his tone.

"I allowed him to push me over the edge." 

A small smile came across Mulder's features, "I would have loved to see that. How did he react? What did you tell him?" He seemed to be forgetting the fact that she had been actively crying just moments ago.

"I told him why he needs us. He told me to get out." Scully allowed herself to let go just a little bit, given the joy this was causing Mulder it couldn't be as bad as she thought. 

She used the back of her sleeve to wipe away the tears that remained on her cheeks. 

Mulder was grinning wide, "You may feel like you broke, but you're my hero for telling him off." 

Scully wasn't terribly comforted by this. "You don't understand Mulder. If I allow myself to break then I lose everything." 

He raised an eyebrow at her, "You really believe that?"

She nodded, laying all her cards out on the table. 

"I think, if anything, it just shows that you're human. Which is not a bad thing, Scully." His voice was tender and caring, "We're all only human." 

She looked into his eyes and saw his concern for her. "I don't need you taking care of me Mulder." She stood up, brushing off his worrying fingers that pulled at her sleeve, "I can take care of myself." 

Mulder looked almost hurt, "I- I know you can, Scully. I just thought maybe you needed a friend." 

She wanted to hiss at him that she didn't need anyone, she took a deep breath and leaned against the desk. "I'm sorry Mulder. It just all gets to me sometimes. I have to work so hard to demand the same kind of respect that you do. I can't allow myself to be emotional around others because they'll just chalk it up to me being a woman and disregard me." She bit her lip, wishing she hadn't let any of that out.

He could see the tenseness in the way she moved, understand the underlying fears that controlled her, but he couldn't figure out where all of this was coming from until her shoulders slouched and her arms went limp. He walked closer to her and placed his hand on the small of her back. "I understand." He said in a voice barely above a whisper. He pressed his lips into her forehead for a moment. "But what you don't understand, is that I'm the weak one. You're the woman who's made of steel, you're the one who keeps us grounded. When you show emotion, people listen."


End file.
